Briefing Doc: NYC Comptroller's Office Reports on Foster Care Safety and MWBE Investments

This briefing doc reviews two reports published by the New York City Comptroller’s Office:

Audit Report on the Administration for Children’s Services’ Monitoring of the Safety of Children in Foster Care
MWBE and Emerging Manager Pension Investments, Fiscal Year 2024

Report 1: Foster Care Safety

Main Themes: This audit report examines the effectiveness of the Administration for Children's Services (ACS) in ensuring the safety of children placed in foster care.

Key Findings:

Generally Adequate Monitoring: The report concludes that ACS's mechanisms for monitoring children in foster care are generally adequate.
Downward Trend in Maltreatment, but Persistent Issues: While instances of substantiated neglect and abuse have declined from 4% in 2020 to 3.1% in 2023, the audit identifies over 2,000 cases involving more than 1,600 children during this period.
Location of Incidents: Over 76% of substantiated incidents occurred during family visitations, highlighting the complexities and challenges associated with maintaining child safety in these settings. Approximately 24% of incidents occurred within the foster care setting itself.
Data Gaps: The report points out that ACS lacks comprehensive data on incidents occurring during court-ordered unsupervised visitations and trial discharges, hindering the agency's ability to identify trends and make informed recommendations to Family Court.

Important Quotes:

"ACS data shows that between Fiscal Years 2020 and 2023, there were more than 2,000 cases of substantiated neglect and/or abuse involving more than 1,600 children."
"Tracking and evaluating this information could help ACS identify trends in the frequency of incidents. Evaluating these should inform future recommendations by ACS to Family Court."

Recommendations: The report recommends that ACS improve data collection on specific incident types and strengthen its analysis to inform better decision-making and collaboration with the Family Court.

Report 2: MWBE and Emerging Manager Pension Investments

Main Themes: This report highlights the New York City Retirement Systems' efforts to increase investments with Minority- and Women-Owned Business Enterprises (MWBE) and Emerging Manager (EM) firms.

Key Findings:

Significant Increase in MWBE Investments: MWBE assets under management have surged by nearly 40% since Comptroller Lander took office, reaching $23.08 billion, representing 13.3% of actively-managed U.S. assets.
Strong Performance: Both EM and MWBE managers have consistently outperformed benchmarks, demonstrating their value and contribution to the Systems' strong overall returns.
Commitment to Expansion: The Systems plan to further expand their Emerging Manager programs, aiming to reach 20% allocation to MWBE managers and 10% to Emerging Managers by 2029.
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Due Diligence: The report emphasizes the integration of DEI considerations into the investment manager due diligence process, assessing policies, practices, and workforce diversity.